THE CAUCUS; Attack on Bain Goes On, But Doubts Linger

By PETER BAKER

Published: May 23, 2012

Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. continued the assault on Mitt Romney's business background on Tuesday, saying it did not qualify him to be president, even as another prominent Democrat expressed misgivings about the White House strategy.

A day after President Obama said that Mr. Romney's experience running Bain Capital was ''what this campaign is going to be about,'' Mr. Biden traveled to New Hampshire to press home the point. When Bain bought troubled firms, he said, the result sometimes was that ''the companies go under, everybody loses their job, the community is devastated but they make money.''

''Making money for your investors, which Romney did very well, is not the president's job,'' Mr. Biden said. ''The president has a different job.'' Mr. Biden added that he was not criticizing private equity firms. But, he said, ''I'm suggesting the people who run them, the same quality and objective of running a private equity firm is not what qualifies you to be president.''

The vice president's comments doubled down on the Obama campaign's effort to turn Mr. Romney's political strength against him early enough in the general election cycle to leave him discredited by the time fall arrives. The danger of Mr. Romney's business background as a political asset was underscored by a new Washington Post/ABC News poll that found him tied with the president among voters who were asked who would do a better job handling the economy.

But the White House approach has stirred dissent in the party. Two days after Cory A. Booker, the Democratic mayor of Newark, called the focus on Bain Capital a ''nauseating'' part of campaigning, another top Democrat, former Gov. Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania, added his own concerns about the attacks.

''I think they're very disappointing,'' he told the Web site BuzzFeed. ''I think Bain is fair game, because Romney has made it fair game. But I think how you examine it, the tone, what you say, is important as well.''

Mr. Rendell praised Mr. Booker. ''People in politics should tell the truth,'' he said. ''He could have qualified it better; he could have framed it better. But if you're in this business, none of us like negative ads.''

This is a more complete version of the story than the one that appeared in print.